Comparison

ByDesign

Akiflow

ByDesign vs Akiflow

Akiflow gathers your tasks. ByDesign plans your life.

Akiflow pulls tasks from your work tools into one inbox and time-blocks them on a keyboard-driven calendar. ByDesign starts from the plan: goals, habits, notes and a year canvas, with AI that builds the plan, schedules the week, and shows it to you before anything saves.

Try ByDesign free See the comparison

What you get with ByDesign that Akiflow doesn’t offer

AI that plans the week, not just moves a task
Say a goal and get tasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines on your calendar. Say “plan my week” and the whole week is drafted on a preview you approve. Akiflow’s optimizer reflows one day when you click it and can’t plan a week, by its own help centre.
Habits, goals and notes built in
A habit tracker with streaks and friends, goal pages with progress, and nested pages with embeds and backlinks. Akiflow has a goal marker on tasks, rich-text task descriptions and planning and shutdown rituals.
Your whole year on one canvas
Year, quarter, month, week and day on one zoomable surface, with sticky notes, images and pinned pages. Akiflow plans in day, week and month views.
Built for working together
Share pages with view, comment or edit access, assign tasks, @mention in comments, chat in the app, and add seats on a team plan. Akiflow’s Meet with overlays the Google or Outlook calendars co-workers already share with you, and its team plan adds seats; tasks can’t be assigned, by its own help centre.

ByDesign vs Akiflow, feature by feature

Only the differences. What both apps do the same is listed underneath.

Included
Limited
Not available

Feature	ByDesign	Akiflow
AI planning
AI goal plans	Included: Built and scheduledTasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines land on your calendar; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Aki builds tasks from a requestNo goal page, courses or progress tracking
AI scheduling with a preview you approve	Included: A whole week, previewedConflicts shown; accept, or undo step by step; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Schedule OptimizerReflows the same day when you click it; it can’t plan your whole week, per Akiflow help
Auto-schedule around your hours	Included: Rules you set, across daysWork hours, breaks, buffers, max hours a day, split long tasks	Limited: ASAP and OptimizeSame day only, and only when you trigger it
Voice control	Included: Mic and hands-freeOptional wake phrase; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Voice on phone and watchPress-and-hold capture, Siri and Apple Watch dictation
Planning views
Year-to-day planning canvas	Included: Year to dayYear, quarter, month, week and day on one zoomable surface; AI and AI Plus plans	Limited: Day, week and monthPlus week and month planners; no year view
Kanban boards	Included: Custom columnsMain board plus boards per page	Not available: No
Sticky notes, images and pinned pages on the calendar	Included: Yes	Not available: No
Customisable dashboard	Included: Drag-and-drop widgetsScore board, tasks, habits, inbox, pinned pages, Kanban	Limited: Stats and a Daily DashboardFilterable stats and a fixed mobile Daily Dashboard; no widgets you arrange
Notes, habits and goals
Notes and pages	Included: Nested pagesTables, code, embeds, sub-pages, backlinks; publish to the web	Limited: Task notesRich text; no pages
Habit tracker	Included: Built inStreaks, skip a day, stats, habits with friends	Not available: Planning and shutdown rituals instead
Goals with progress	Included: Goal pagesTasks, resources, percent complete, shareable	Limited: Goal marker on tasksAki can filter tasks by goal; no goal page
Courses and roadmaps from the Hub	Included: The HubCourses, roadmaps and a habit library; schedule a roadmap straight onto your calendar	Limited: Aki workflow templatesNo courses
Time tracking on tasks	Included: Start and pause on any taskTotals per task; “most tracked” filter	Limited: Stats from completed durationsFocus-timer time isn’t counted, per Akiflow help
Collaboration
Share pages and assign tasks	Included: View, comment or editAssign tasks; @mention in comments	Limited: Team calendarsSee co-workers’ schedules; “you cannot assign tasks to other members”, per Akiflow help
Built-in chat	Included: Direct and groupThreads, reactions, polls	Not available: Aki is a personal AI chat; no team chat

AI planning

AI goal plans
ByDesign
Included: Built and scheduledTasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines land on your calendar; AI and AI Plus plans
Akiflow
Limited: Aki builds tasks from a requestNo goal page, courses or progress tracking
AI scheduling with a preview you approve
ByDesign
Included: A whole week, previewedConflicts shown; accept, or undo step by step; AI and AI Plus plans
Akiflow
Limited: Schedule OptimizerReflows the same day when you click it; it can’t plan your whole week, per Akiflow help
Auto-schedule around your hours
ByDesign
Included: Rules you set, across daysWork hours, breaks, buffers, max hours a day, split long tasks
Akiflow
Limited: ASAP and OptimizeSame day only, and only when you trigger it
Voice control
ByDesign
Included: Mic and hands-freeOptional wake phrase; AI and AI Plus plans
Akiflow
Limited: Voice on phone and watchPress-and-hold capture, Siri and Apple Watch dictation

Planning views

Year-to-day planning canvas
ByDesign
Included: Year to dayYear, quarter, month, week and day on one zoomable surface; AI and AI Plus plans
Akiflow
Limited: Day, week and monthPlus week and month planners; no year view
Kanban boards
ByDesign
Included: Custom columnsMain board plus boards per page
Akiflow
Not available: No
Sticky notes, images and pinned pages on the calendar
ByDesign
Included: Yes
Akiflow
Not available: No
Customisable dashboard
ByDesign
Included: Drag-and-drop widgetsScore board, tasks, habits, inbox, pinned pages, Kanban
Akiflow
Limited: Stats and a Daily DashboardFilterable stats and a fixed mobile Daily Dashboard; no widgets you arrange

Notes, habits and goals

Notes and pages
ByDesign
Included: Nested pagesTables, code, embeds, sub-pages, backlinks; publish to the web
Akiflow
Limited: Task notesRich text; no pages
Habit tracker
ByDesign
Included: Built inStreaks, skip a day, stats, habits with friends
Akiflow
Not available: Planning and shutdown rituals instead
Goals with progress
ByDesign
Included: Goal pagesTasks, resources, percent complete, shareable
Akiflow
Limited: Goal marker on tasksAki can filter tasks by goal; no goal page
Courses and roadmaps from the Hub
ByDesign
Included: The HubCourses, roadmaps and a habit library; schedule a roadmap straight onto your calendar
Akiflow
Limited: Aki workflow templatesNo courses
Time tracking on tasks
ByDesign
Included: Start and pause on any taskTotals per task; “most tracked” filter
Akiflow
Limited: Stats from completed durationsFocus-timer time isn’t counted, per Akiflow help

Collaboration

Share pages and assign tasks
ByDesign
Included: View, comment or editAssign tasks; @mention in comments
Akiflow
Limited: Team calendarsSee co-workers’ schedules; “you cannot assign tasks to other members”, per Akiflow help
Built-in chat
ByDesign
Included: Direct and groupThreads, reactions, polls
Akiflow
Not available: Aki is a personal AI chat; no team chat

Akiflow column based on help centre, Schedule Optimizer, what Aki can do, task features, stats and pricing on October 26, 2026. If something has changed, email info@bydesign.io.

Both apps cover the basics

AI assistant chat
Tasks with priorities, tags, durations and deadlines
Recurring tasks
Natural-language quick add and an inbox
Email to task and attachments
Time blocking by drag and drop
Daily, weekly and someday lists
Pomodoro-style focus timer
Google, Apple and Outlook calendar sync
Team plans billed per seat
MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT
Web, Mac, Windows, iOS, iPad and Android apps
Widgets on iOS and Android
Dark mode
Keyboard shortcuts

Try ByDesign free

Why people switch from Akiflow to ByDesign

Say the goal. Get a scheduled plan.

Tell ByDesign what you want to achieve. It asks a few questions, then builds the tasks, subtasks, courses and deadlines and schedules them around the life you already have. Replan in one message.

Akiflow: Aki, Akiflow’s assistant, creates tasks from a sentence, moves them when you ask and can set up a routine on request. There is no goal page, no courses and no progress to track.

ByDesign AI goal plan with tasks, tags and durations

Preview the whole week before it saves

Say “plan my week” and ByDesign drafts the changes on a preview of your calendar, conflicts included. Accept, or undo step by step. Nothing is saved until you say so.

Akiflow: Akiflow’s Schedule Optimizer reflows the same day after you drag or resize something, and only when you click Optimize. Its help centre answers “Can Schedule Optimizer plan my whole week?” with “No.”

ByDesign week view with the planning assistant previewing changes

Your whole year on one surface

The planning canvas zooms from the full year down to a single day. Pin goals, notes and milestones where they belong, drag anything, and the plan keeps up.

Akiflow: Akiflow shows a day, a few days, a week or a month, plus week and month planners. There is no year view.

ByDesign planning canvas showing a full year of plans

A workspace your team can live in

Share pages with view, comment or edit access, assign tasks, @mention people in comments and chat without leaving the app. Add seats from the app on a team plan.

Akiflow: Akiflow’s Meet with overlays the calendars co-workers already share with you, so you can book meetings with them. Tasks can’t be shared or assigned, by its own help centre.

Don’t take our word for it.

From Petey M.
I used to keep a calendar, a to-do list, and a project app. ByDesign replaced all of them. It’s clean, it works, and I haven’t needed anything else.
From E
I really like ByDesign - a lot. I was looking for something that works for me but is also simple and intuitive enough to work for my 12 yr old daughter who needs to start planning out her homework and chores around her other calendar events. I think this is it - and I have looked at a lot of your competitors - Notion, Motion, Tick Tick, To-Do, Todoist. None have the simplicity of user interface combined with the rich features (but not overly complex). love it😍
From TuneOutlyson003
I just wanna say that I have FINALLY found a to-do list app where I can have recurring tasks and habit/org systems in one place. This is awesome because I keep wondering if one day my autonomous self will break....this is awesome so far!

See All The Love →

Make the switch in three steps

No setup project. Start free, connect the calendar you already use, and give ByDesign your first goal.

Start your free trial. No credit card.
Connect your Google, Apple or Outlook calendar.
Say your first goal and watch the plan land on your calendar.

Ready to plan the week, not just today?

Start free. No credit card. Tell ByDesign a goal and watch the plan land on your calendar.